Introduction

North Dakota, the most rural of all 50 states with over 90% of its lands devoted to farming, became the 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889.

The Republican Party holds large majorities in the state legislature and generally wins the state's 3-member electoral college delegation. Since 1964, no Democratic presidential candidate has carried North Dakota. In 2004, George W. Bush won with 62.9% of the vote.

History

North Dakota was inlcuded in trhe last part of the American frontier to be closed. On September 8, 1883 Sitting Bull spoke in Sioux to a crowd of whites at a ceremony in Bismarck to mark the last spike to be driven in the Northern Pacific Railroad. Sitting Bull tells the crowd, " I hate all the white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcats." Not knowing what has been said, they clap politely.